News and views of Constance Cumbey concerning "Radical Middle", New Age Movement, Communitarianism, "planetary humanism," "global governance," European Union, Javier Solana, Jeremy Rifkin, "New Age Politics," law in the USA, combined with life in general -- sometimes humorous, sometimes not!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

GLOBAL GOVERNANCE COMMISSION "Global Commission on Elections and Democracy" is now speaking to USA elections as well as others!

Today's Breaking News!

It looks like world government, ooops, "global governance" is being advanced in the immediate wake of the 2011 "Arab Spring" and 2012 current events. The United States just came in for severe criticism from this panel of wannabe global governors: The following is from the Voice of America story by Selah Hennessy

LONDON — A commission headed by former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan charges that the soaring cost of U.S. elections is a major hindrance to democracy. The charge appears in a report published Friday by the Global Commission on Elections and Democracy, which says its goal is to promote the integrity of elections.

Former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan spoke to VOA at the launch of the report in London.

He says each nation must develop an election framework that suits its needs.

The commission members include Javier Solana and former USA Secretary of State Madeline Albright.

"As pro-democracy campaigners take to the streets across the Arab world, and as 19 African countries prepare to hold national elections this year, an international initiative to promote the integrity of elections was launched on 4 March 2011 in Pretoria, South Africa."Recent events in Côte d’Ivoire and elsewhere have highlighted more clearly than ever that elections are vital to democratic government, but they are not sufficient. Too often, we see incumbents rig the elections, illicit funding or media bias distort the electoral process, and losing candidates refuse to accept the results. Where elections are marred in these ways, people lose faith in democracy and the political process, and human rights and security are put at risk."The Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security, jointly created by the International Institute for Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) and the Kofi Annan Foundation, is made up of 12 eminent individuals from around the world, including Kofi Annan, Ernesto Zedillo, Martti Ahtisaari, Madeleine Albright and Amartya Sen. It aims to highlight the importance of the integrity of elections to achieving a more secure, prosperous and stable world.

The Commission's full report may be downloaded from this link: More later and stay tuned!

well, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, and they are not far wrong. That doesn't mean they don't have a bad reason for an apparently good statement.

Ex. Gov. Jesse Ventura is considering running for president in 2016 as an individual, no third party, if he can be gotten on the ballot and guaranteed access to debate in all 50 states. Might be a nice change.

The two party system is a two party fraud, about time we do away with all political parties, something we did not originally have and that the founding fathers considered an unwholesome thing.

The point is that this is another "crisis = opportunity" for the global governance crowd which obviously seeks an excuse to monitor and control the USA from its vantage point. As bad as things might be here, do we really want to trust our future to KOFI ANNAN, JAVIER SOLANA, and MADELINE ALBRIGHT?

Do you think that all of these inflammatory world-wide incidents - of religious groups at war with each other - is setting the stage for the New World Order Global Elite's grand plan?

Do you think that, one day in the future, an international law will be passed outlawing all of the TRADITIONAL religions (Muslim, Jewish, Catholic & Protestant)? Do you think that people will be forbidden from being allowed to openly practice their respective traditional faiths under the pretext that these fundamentalist religions are organizations of 'exclusion'... and thus demand that all must come together ('for the greater good' of course) under a One World Religion based on 'inclusion'?

Finally - drum roll please - will the Anti-Christ then enter from the wings on cue?

That Kofi Annan should presume to lecture the USA on democracy is absurd, patronising and hypocritical. Heaven knows, nowhere is perfect in a fallen world, but the sooner your fine nation kicks the UN off its soil and declines to fund this contemptible corruptocracy the better.

Amen.The very land that the U.N stands on was donatedby the R*ck*f*llr$, who are the globalist elite New World Oder poster children. They also have been funding abortion on demandthrough Planned Parenthood for decades.

Hyper-charismatics are getting more brazen in their New Age doctrines. Chuck Pierce of "Glory of Zion" is hosting a conference this weekend with one of the topics titled, Grow Up and Mature into One New Man! which sounds eerily similar to homo universalis. Featured speakers to include Bill Hamon who wrote on the perfected manifested sons of God and a Joel’s Army which will have power and authority to execute judgment apparently akin to Barbara Marx Hubbard’s “pale horse”.

“Prophet” Bob Jones, after coming out of a trance, proclaims God is raising up a “Joel’s Army” against the “religious spirit” using Joel 2:1-11 as proof-text.

hmmmm. I wonder how long before these people start getting physical? I mean violent. what is this religious spirit they are complaining of, interest/membership in normal churches? notice the mention of warriors used to using the sword to which will be added the word of God as another weapon. This sounds a little too literal.

Maybe the Christians that might get thrown in the FEMA camps are these MSOG crew.

To hyper-charismatics the "religious spirit" is one that is in opposition to their belief systems. This includes all of denominationalism, but especially those who are actively speaking out and exposing the things hyper-charismatics teach. Darkness does not appreciate light.

This contrasts the Alpha Course with the rival and better Christianity Explored.

Guess where I first heard of the Alpha Course. http://centurean2.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/high-ranking-australian-satanist-on-deathbed-satanists-rule-the-world-everything-indicates-he-is-right/

So I went digging. (I keep pretty much to myself, so I don't run into all that much in person. Never heard of it before this, but it is rampant.)

here are several articles on the matter.https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=webhp&source=hp&q=alpha+course+satanism&oq=alpha+course+satanism&gs_l=hp.3...764.6789.0.6976.29.20.3.5.5.0.141.1487.18j2.20.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.XygkpOHaFls

I would imagine some here are into Fritz Springmeier's books. I have lately been looking into them. My opinion is this, for what its worth.

Read with discernment, but read. Springmeier is either gullible or a plant to make things look too wierd or unlikely, less kooky than David Icke, or he means well but has gotten under some bad spirit influences or has a problematic world view.

Gullibility - some people mentioned like John Todd have been pretty well discredited, and even if there was any truth to what Todd said, he could have been a plant with false information also.

Bad influence - Springmeier seems to consider William Branham good, because he opposed obvious occult stuff like fortune telling and of course freemasonry. That doesn't mean Branham wasn't channelling a deceiving spirit at least part of the time himself.

Springmeier also is into a kind of semi anti semitism.

Then of course, he got convicted on bank robbery. supposedly this was a setup to get even for his writings or something. But all his opposition to this evil wouldn't rule out his being seduceable by one of those groups who like to finance themselves this way, and kept quiet about it. Whatever the truth on the matter, to get nailed on this even as a frameup means you have to be lacking in discernment to be at the wrong place at the right time not to mention associates etc.

So Springmeier should not be taken as Holy Writ, neither should he be ignored. Use as a starting point for research, check the sources cited.

"European Union officials are asking national governments to give up control of their banks as they try to pull the region closer together to solve its crippling financial crisis."

"Jose Manuel Barroso, the Commission's president, warned that giving up control of banks would be just the start and that countries would have to get used to handing over powers to Europe in order to solve the region's debt problems."

"A deep and genuine economic and monetary union ... means ultimately that the present European Union must evolve," he added. "And let's not be afraid of the words. We will need to move toward a federation of nation states."

yes Ron Paul was an unfortunate waste of time, though he may have set the stage for action by some later person who is more legitimate. Tarpley was the first one to cue listeners to Alex Jones on that one. And he was right.

Has anyone heard of Usama Dakdok and His ministry Straight way of grace? He has a radio show called Radio Jihad on Blog talk radio. He is a Egyptian Christian living in the US. He has made a translation of the Quran. He believes that the recent riots are a response to the killing of Osama bin Laden rather than to this film when there is much more clear information on the Internet "slandering" Mohommed. He also says a lot of what the Mohommed film says is backed up in Islamic literature.

yes he would have, but his whole game was nepotism and to position Rand Paul and to eventually sell out to Romney. Libertarianism and Paul's (potentially murderous since it would cost many lives) plan to shut down the whole medicare etc. scene could not have been done nor other such harm but he could have kept us out of some trouble we are galloping towards, police state martial law at home and WW 3 abroadwhich is to the advantage of elites and no one else.

Tarpley does the best analysis explaining what was back of Paul, and back of Romney by the way, the same thing back of Obama but who now figure Romney is more useful.Probably because he would move us faster into confrontation than Obama would, since he is more cautious.

Forget about parties. Think power blocs often competing with each other, but as a united front behind both parties.

Jesse Ventura says he will run in 2016 as an independent IF he can be got on the ballot on all 50 states AND be allowed in all the debates,and wants to get rid of all parties.

Sorry Christine, I don't have time for anybody like Tarpley who says that Karl Marx was a British agent. That is crackpot stuff.

http://american_almanac.tripod.com/versaill.htm

To call Ron Paul murderous because of his antipathy to Medicare is wild talk. Murder means a deliberate desire to kill. Paul simply believes that Medicare is the wrong way to do healthcare. Do you have any basis for imputing murderous motives to him - such as an off-guard comment that the poor should die, or something else? Or is it simply that you believe you see farther and more deeply than other mortals?

I said POTENTIALLY murderous, and though the law would be irrelevant in this, depraved indifference to human life is enough to raise a manslaughter charge to murder one, for instance, if someone accidentally kills someone while firing into a crowd.

I don't know about his argument for Marx, I think Marx may have been used by British interests but was a real evil sort on his own. In fact, he was the one who almost singlehandedly hammered through atheism as a plank in the Communist International platform. Marx was driven more by ambition - to rule the socialist revolutionary scene - than by ideology, his choice of stuff to publish was heavily driven by what would drive down and out whoever his main rival at the moment was. KARL MARX AND THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO by Elliot Erikson (PhD dissertation Stanford, my father, extensive excerpts at http://web.archive.org/web/20051230015606/http://www.advweb.com/kw/misc/misc/

Tarpley may sometimes be overconcerned about British game playing, but you really should read his online free book Against Oligarchy at http://tarpley.net and George Bush the Unauthorized Biography, and he did a similar hatchet job on Obama and is working up all the dirt on Romney in bits and pieces.

Tarpley is a historian who notices patterns of behavior and correctly predicted the whole Ron Paul debacle when no one else did.

LaRouche borrowed some of Tarpley's ideas, but Tarpley considers LaRouche a nut or a game player or something.

tarpley is hardly playing the hegelian dialectic, since he condemns all sides. he is a bit too hung up on Plato, however. I detect a flaw somewhere in connection with this in his historical analysis, but as for Aristotle being to blame for everything, whether true or false it doesn't matter, because the real issue is the historical events and drives still on.

New footage was posted on Tuesday on the website of the liberal investigative magazine Mother Jones, which said it was taken at a fundraiser in Boca Raton, Florida. Mr Romney is shown saying that Palestinians are "committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel".

"The Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace," he says. In another clip, the former Massachusetts governor is shown discussing Iran's nuclear programme, and warning that America itself could come under attack.

"If I were Iran - a crazed fanatic, I'd say let's get a little fissile material to Hezbollah, have them carry it to Chicago or some other place, and then if anything goes wrong, or America starts acting up, we'll just say, 'Guess what? Unless you stand down, why, we're going to let off a dirty bomb'."

On Monday, Mother Jones posted another clip from the same fundraiser in which Mr Romney disparages those who would vote for his Democratic rival, President Barack Obama. The Republican candidate is shown saying that the 47% of Americans who back the president do not pay income tax and would never vote for Mr Romney. "There are 47% who are with him [Mr Obama], who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it."

Mr Romney said in the video that his role "is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

Anonymous at 1:45 I don't agree with the perspective of the ones on the video. However, I do believe any war between Israel and Iran would be a trigger to a possible world war. It would no doubt drag the U.S. into it, and at least Great Britain. All the nations where protests against the U.S. (Libya, Pakistan, etc.) would more than likely come to the defense of Iran. Perhaps Russia would get involved. North Korea could use this war as an opportunity to launch an attack on South Korea and Japan. There could be a nuclear exchange somewhere.It was already foretold by Ezekiel, this war.

I am sure that the Brits would be only too happy to "mind their own business," but unfortunately, the failed foreign policies of the regime in Washington, and not some scrimy Youtube video clip, have MADE it their business - as well as the business of all those who are sending warships to sail beside ours in the Persian Gulf - in anticipation of all hell breaking loose if Iran tries to block the Strait of Hormuz.

And don't think for one minute that Russia would not get into the act. In fact, in the 1990's, it was thanks to "Russia's Man in Washington," Strobe Talbott, that there occurred a transfer of missile technology to Iran which Talbott and his confreres tried to sweep under the rug.

One more thing....President Bush as well as the Brits may very well have been vindicated as a result of the 500+ metric tons of yellowcake that was found in Iraq in 2008 and taken out of Iraq in secret......

Why "in secret???"...just months before Barack Obama was elected President after a vicious campaign in which then Senator Obama appeared to be competing more against outgoing President George W. Bush than Republican candidate Senator John McCain and continued making use of the "blame Bush" meme through most of his disastrous term.

Terribly sorry old chap, I thought you believed in free speech on your side of the water. Most of you do, anyway, and I'm very glad of that. Please ask Webster Tarpley to stop badmouthing us with his historically illiterate comments though.

EDITORS' NOTE: According to a source close to Breitbart News and high up in the intelligence community, the Obama administration's policy following Muammar Gaddafi's death has been to keep a "low profile" during a chaotic time. For this reason, according to the source, American Marines were not stationed at the U.S. embassy in Tripoli or the American consulate in Benghazi, as would typically have been the case. In the spirit of a "low profile," the administration didn't even want an American company in charge of private security. Blue Mountain, the British firm the State Department hired, was willing to abide by the "no bullets" Rules of Engagement (ROE), so were a logical fit for the contract. These sub-standard protections for American diplomats were signed by Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in the ROE. In essence, the Obama Administration tasked an unarmed British firm with security responsibilities that should have been handled by armed American servicemen, and it was all approved by the Secretary of State. Needless to say, the plan failed and an Ambassador was murdered, along with several others.

As of now, the State Department has not disclosed the full State Department Rules of Engagement for Libya.

This news report comes from Russia. 25 years ago America and the civilised World recoiled at the horrors of the Soviet Union. Now those horrors have reached the West due to our nations forsaking God.

Obama wins right to indefinitely detain Americans under NDAA.

Published: 18 September, 2012,

http://rt.com/usa/news/obama-lohier-ndaa-stay-414/

Defense Authorization Act

"A lone appeals judge bowed down to the Obama administration late Monday and reauthorized the White House’s ability to indefinitely detain American citizens without charge or due process."

"Last week, a federal judge ruled that an temporary injunction on section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 must be made permanent, essentially barring the White House from ever enforcing a clause in the NDAA that can let them put any US citizen behind bars indefinitely over mere allegations of terrorist associations..."

That Coptic fragment is from the time of the gnostic gospels which already contain greater implausibilities about Jesus than that and do not run in an unbroken tradition back to Christ's day. Hardly the deathknell for the church.

even if Jesus WAS married that would mean nothing. Jesus is FULLY HUMAN and FULLY DIVINE. He got hungry, tired, went to the bathroom, etc. While it is unlikely He would have burdened Himself with potential family life beyond what He was born with, not to mention the unfairness to a woman to take her knowing He would be leaving her at a specific time, IF He had put His humanity into practicalaction not only in the usual ways, but in the realm of marriage, this would in no way impugne His divinity, any more than His being tired or hungry or thirsty does.

However, if He had been married, this would have been included in the information the Apostles passed on to us. Personally I don't believe He was married, but I don't think it matters either way.

The whole point about The Incarnation is that He is fully human incarnation means ENFLESHMENT, physical, "like us in all regards but without sin."

People who think Jesus having been married would disprove Christianity must think we think He is too divine to be physical. We are not docetists. An early heresy of gnostic sort that held that He only SEEMED (docetism means seemism) to be physical.

The marriage at Cana is argued as proof, because His mother taking concern about the wine would point to it being His wedding, but it could have just as easily have been the wedding of one of His brothers or half brothers as you prefer.

My Roman Catholic Mom won't allow Jesus to have brothers or sisters, insists that Jesus' Mother was- and always will be- a virgin, and that Jesus was not, cannot, and should not be married. Perfect example of "Traditions of Men".

Anon 1:23You don't even get it.Jesus was not married.He would have been constrained by his own religion to pay attention to his wife, and His mission on earth would not and did not have that constraint hanging over it.Furthermore Jesus was the Lamb slain beforethe foundation of the earth. He was without sin and blameless. He was spotless. The idea of Jesus being married is the core idea behind Gnosticism.It's just a lie; a very old lie that pops up whenever the devil thinks he can pass it offagain, because enough people have becomehistorically unlearned, complacent and just plaindumbed down.

Paul, I wasn't saying that the Lord was married or was not. Either way, it doesn't affect my faith. Other than that, I understand what you've said, and it's helped clarify things for me, as your comments always have. Thanks. Guillermo

Over the past few centuries, science can be said to have gradually chipped away at the traditional grounds for believing in God. Much of what once seemed mysterious — the existence of humanity, the life-bearing perfection of Earth, the workings of the universe — can now be explained by biology, astronomy, physics and other domains of science.

Although cosmic mysteries remain, Sean Carroll, a theoretical cosmologist at the California Institute of Technology, says there's good reason to think science will ultimately arrive at a complete understanding of the universe that leaves no grounds for God whatsoever.

More....

(Plus read the 3,000+ comments and counting at the end of the article.)

Paul is right. People are actually woefully ignorant of the Scriptures, therefore woefully ignorant of our Great Savior. If people who say they are believers, were as aware and humbled as they should be, in this Glorious Knowledge, in the sheer Grandeur and Majesty of the Holy Son of God, Jesus the Christ, Who came down to earth as the Lowly Servant King, they would not even bother to entertain such garbage as to dumb down Christ and His Mission. Jesus Christ is The Great I Am of the Old Testament folks. To make Him so horizontal in His Goal as to live for this world is to border on blasphemy. He was not of this world, but came to it to Identify God to us by putting on human flesh, to show us that only God could pull of a Perfect Life and then a Perfect Sacrifice for our sorry sorry selves. In all the many types of Christ throughout the Old Testament where He is concealed and then later revealed in the New Testament, He stands over the ages as the One Who Alone could carry the weight & the magnitude of our Hell-deserving sinfulness. And that was the beat of His Heart and His Lifes' Blood--to sweat out Blood in the Garden and then pour it from His Wounds of Crucifixtion for humankind, that He may make us by Simple Repentant Faith in Him, His Blood family. His Life for mine and yours dear reader! His Righteousness for my unrighteousness in the Greatest Exchange the world has ever ever known. If people really read and meditated on the Word of God-It's 66 Books-that Perfect Canon of God-Breathed Truth-trusting it as-The-Lone-Authority they would be able to kick their whole understanding of Christ Up by a 1000 notches! Hence the problem...to treat God so low as to think Him so much like us. Shame! It is also to be understood that the name Jesus was common in His day and doesn't The Bible tell us that there would be many false christs? A thousand counterfeits will never diminish the Great Lord and King of Heaven, our only safe passage out of this life into Eternity. Think people! And then Believe and Repent before His Cross while The Spirit convicts you to Trust Him to be saved before this life is passed and your Only Salvation gone with it! For God so Loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have Everlasting Life! John 3:16

Shocking to me, but we are now learning there are animals species where virgin births are found, no male needed. 2,000 years in the past is a long time. Might there have been folk knowledge suggesting this at the time, leading to the belief that it could happen among humans? Making human virgin birth seem possible and not so strange to others? Google the topic using the words "animals virgin births". This is not to take away from belief in Christianity as much as to examine what seems impossible to many. The child of such an unusual person might be unusual himself, a person with a deeper understanding of life and what is beyond.

More importantly, this does not take away from the belief in God which who we can only understand in human words, but never know completely with our limited knowledge. Even in Christianity, Jesus is only one part of the trinity.

The divine angle to Him not being genetically transmissible, if He had a child it would only be human and not divine also.

The evidence pro and con Mary's perpetual virginity is too dicey to settle either way. The usual reasons for arguing her perpetual virginity that the EO uses don't hold water, not one of them.

HOWEVER Joseph disappears early on so the idea he was an older man with children from an earlier marriage fits the picture. These would be Jesus' brothers and sisters, since these terms are not used with the same precision we do.

Since the military were expected to be celibate if Mary was early on known to be an unusual spiritual warrior, perhaps it was decided fitting for her to take some oath of perpetual virginity.

NOW AS TO VIRGIN BIRTHS, the animals that do this if not mammalian the result is male. If mammalian, the result is female. Jesus is male, so He is not the result of a natural parthenogenesis, nor an induced one, which would result in the twin sister of the mother.

Neither is He the result of artificial insemination by aliens or whatever, since she is called "almah," which is more than merely betulah, intact hymen. Intact hymen means nothing reliably. The hymen can survive intercourse sometimes, if narrow and thick enough, but almah is more than just "young woman," it implies veiled, isolated, untouched. No petting even. non penetrative sex acts like dry humping, and of course oral sex or anal sex would leave the hymen intact, but this would be a technical virgin not an almah.

Also semen spills during such activities could end up in the vagina and the tadpole whip tail things (sperm) heading up the vagina and fertilizing an egg. This has happened occasionally.

"NOW AS TO VIRGIN BIRTHS, the animals that do this if not mammalian the result is male. If mammalian, the result is female."

It's a bit more complex than that, but the point is that the offspring in all asexual reproduction ar genetically identical to the parent. Mary was femal and had two X chromosomes whereas Jesus was male and had an X and a Y, so they were not genetically identical. So there is a genetic miracle involved in the birth of Jesus. How I would love to see His Y chromosome (the one from the father)! And no I don't believe the Ron Wyatt story about finding his blood in the rocks beneath a likely crucifixion site at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem. He claimed to have had a sample DNA-tested and that the paternal contribution was missing, but would never specified the laboratory involved and other digs did not find the things he siaid he had (not just blood).

I believe you have it the wrong way round. BETULAH is virgin in Hebrew, ie never penetrated by a male, which is what counts; ALMA is young girl, typically of the age at which one would hope she is a virgin. Check with Jews and OT usage.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is considering the cancellation of the Oslo Accords, a long-standing deal with Israel, including the associated economic and security pacts, after a proposal by PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas. The accords were an attempt to lay out an initial framework for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but left a number of important details about the end of the occupation and the status of settlements built on Palestinian land to "future" negotiations. — Antiwar.com

betulah relates to never penetrated, as I said, intact hymen (but hymen can survive penetration so it is no absolute guaratee) but you do not need penetration for a semen spill during non penetrative sex to result in pregnancy. so betulah is no guarantee of actual virgin birth.

Almah meaning is drawn from Strong's Corcordance and the Jewish usage of words changed but there are other words for young girls, marriageable age beginning around 12 or 14.

Almah incl. a masculine version of the word for a student, implies an isolation.

The liberal take on Almah in Isaiah is wrong, it is not just female, not aged. LXX translated it parthenos, virgin.

But this is one of the latest quotes (2010) from Joyce Meyer and quite an incredible statement:Transcript:

Time: 00:14:19 “We’re never going to mature and develop godly character until we learn to live….. with the All-Seeing eye on us all the time.” — [Joyce Meyer - Transcript - Enjoying Everyday Life - Be Imitators of God - 7/10/2010] Quote taken from discerningtheworld.com

As part of the research I do on most topics, I check to see if Constance had written anything on the topic. It's easy. Google search the topic adding Cumbey to the name of the topic being searched.

Today I was looking up the World Wisdom Council as well as Abraham's Path Initiative. It brought back the good old days when there was much intellectual red meat to be found on this site, information given by blog contributors as well as Constance.

For a flashback to the good old days, check this out. http://cumbey.blogspot.com/2008/05/jerusalem-academy.html

interesting history of the origin of "family planning" in the eugenics movement, itself racist to begin with. Even Darwin's first edition was subtitled with white supremacy and nonwhites as closer to the apes in mind.

I'm glad that the Bible doesn't need to give us all the sexual details of right living. It is very frank about things, especially in theLaw, but, unlike Christine, it thankfully leaves out minutia and details that are unnecessary to make the point.

It does matter, a lot, that Jesus wasn't marriedin this world, and indeed he was, or will be married to his church. Thank you anon 3:33.

Christine, you've read the Bible, that's good. But you seem to be so filled with David Icke, and every other wind of doctrine that comes down the pike (net) that it's all jumbled together in your mind.

"Much study is a weariness to the flesh. Obey God and keep his commandments."

'Op-Ed: Arab media views on war with Iran make WW3 sound very ordinary.'

By Paul Wallis

Sep 13, 2012

'Sydney- Middle Eastern perceptions of the threat of a war with Iran and those of the West are very different. Exactly how different can be seen in the speculation is appearing online in the region regarding the ramifications of a US/Iran war.'

'Al Jazeera believes that a war with Iran would escalate into a regional war with Iranian “proxies” striking at the US and predicts a war which would make the last decade look “tame by comparison”. This alludes to the Taliban style-asymmetrical warfare pattern and methods similar to the insurgency in Iraq.'

'None of this is to suggest that the United States would not "win" a war with Iran, but given the incredibly painful costs of Iraq and Afghanistan; wars fought against weak, poorly organised enemies lacking broad influence, politicians campaigning for war with Iran are leading the American people into a battle which will be guaranteed to make the past decade of fighting look tame in comparison...'

I don't pay any attention to David Icke, I think he is somewhat onto something, but is mostly a New Age plant to make the reality of demonic presence with some elites look ridiculous in terms of shape shifting reptiles on a literal physical level.

Now as for details, those details ARE ESSENTIAL to make the point, because anyone who knows a little can jump to conclusions that work against the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ.

the church being A FIGURATIVE bride (do you expect Him to be engaging in some kind of sex act with a collective?) it does not matter if He had a literal bride.

Now don't get me wrong, I do not believe He did. I also don't believe that if it were established that He did, that would be relevant.

The only reason this sort of thing is thought to derail Christianity is either the speaker thinks that Jesus' divinity is understood (or supposed to be understood) as at the expense of His humanity, OR they think that the whole edifice of Christianity hinges on traditions and inventions, The Bible included, of an organization that didn't even exist when the NT was being written, i.e., the RC, and Christianity was growing by peaceful conversion for over three centuries during which the authorities either ignored or persecuted it, and Christianity had no worldly power to use to shape anything.

Finally, the argument that Jesus is not a polygamist, so cannot have had a literal wife and the Church as wife, fails for two reasons. First, the literal wife marriage ended with His death, which was not a near death situation but actual death, and His Resurrection didn't change that.

Second, the Church being a composite thing consisting of millions and millions or billions of individuals, yes, by definition, He would be a polygamist.

But this is the sort of absurdity you can get when you push a metaphor into too literal an analogy.

Another error of similar nature, is the idea of Manifest Sons of God that the Church as mystical body of Christ is identical with Christ ergo the Second Coming is some kind of empowerment of the believers.

As for being explicit, you don't know your Bible very well, if you think things are only explicit in The Law which is not merely the specific rules but the entire five books of Moses.

Song of Solomon is double entendre in lots of places, and in terms of condemnation of Israel's attitude and behavior near obscene explicitness is stated in The Prophets. I am sure there are some other examples but these are the ones that come to mind.

You post here very frequently, and often very far from the subjects of Constance's articles. Please do the hard work of getting the viewing figures up on your own blog and posting your ideas there, rather than hijacking Constance's already successful blog and dragging it downmarket. A consistent strand of various posters is that they scarcely come here any more because of it.

Have you never been at a dinner party at which one guest talks nonstop over all the rest...?

Thanks Paul for stating it so well that Christine has wearied the flesh with too much--she is into the "too much" and has wearied everybody over here (for a long while). I have this challenge for you, Christine, how about spend 3/4 of the time you now devote to "minutia"(others are correct that you are too explicit and off topic to the sad extreme)and spend that amount of time actually reading the Bible-and obey what you read by esteeming others and their thoughts and opinions more than your own)to develop a relationship with Christ? What a different tone you would take as to actually edify this blog instead of what you are doing now. This is reasonable and for your own spiritual health and to the health of good dialogue here. And how about visit the prayer closet while you are at it and do some repenting like many of us feel need to do? I am serious when I say you are showing deep neediness in your spiritual life and I pray you will recognize this. Jesus will satisfy your soul, Christine, if you will allow Him to. Would do your soul wonders.....................

Dinner party? The comments section of this blog is almost as like sitting through the movie "My Dinner with Aundre".

Yes we have the option to collapse, but when one individual dominates the blog the need to collapse the majority of the comments becomes too much. And when the blog hog extends her expertise to every post and ridicules everyone as having "comprehension problems" for disagreement, you have to throw your hands up and give up.

I support Christine's anatomical discussions of virginity. Read "Alone of all her sex" by Marina Warner to see that Catholic schoolgirls were taught in gruesome detail about Mary's hymen less than a generation ago, at least. Warner went to a Catholic high school in England and became a secular feminist, and this book is a searching exposition of the cult of Mary and its consequences.

Christine reminds us implicitly that a woman who has never been penetrated can conceive if an ejaculation of semen takes place close to her genitals, but Christine is not suggesting that this was the case with Mary, and the relevant Biblical verse is where Mary states that she "knew not a man" - a suitably general phrase that confirms Mary's chasteness.

About Me

As an active Michigan lawyer, I practice my profession primarily in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties of Michigan, USA (248-253-0333). Sometimes I do work in my old "stomping grounds" of our State Capitol, Lansing, Michigan on administrative, state law related matters, as well. I've enjoyed active and stimulating careers in government, politics, law and as a published and translated author. In the past, I have worked for the Michigan House of Representatives, the Michigan State Senate, and the City of Highland Park, Michigan. I'm the author of the first major critical book about the New Age Movement, THE HIDDEN DANGERS OF THE RAINBOW: The New Age Movement and our Coming Age of Barbarism (1983); A PLANNED DECEPTION: The Staging of a New Age Messiah (1986). Currently, I'm completing a volume about Javier Solana, the Barcelona Process, Israel and the European Union. Email me cumbey@gmail.com.